The amicable agreement is subject to approval by the economic court and acquires legal force from that moment.

The Bankruptcy Law established an exhaustive list of documents that must be attached to the application (Article 149 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan “On Bankruptcy”). First of all, this is the very amicable agreement, which the economic court must assess, checking whether the requirements for its registration have been met, whether it does not contradict laws and other regulatory legal acts^[1].

The obligatory annex to the amicable agreement is the minutes of the meeting of creditors that made the decision to conclude the amicable agreement; debtor’s creditors’ claims register^[2]. The application for the approval of the amicable agreement is also accompanied by documents confirming the repayment of costs and satisfaction of claims for court costs, for costs associated with the payment of remuneration to the court administrator, for current utility and operational payments, for insurance costs of the debtor’s property, as well as for the obligations of the debtor, arising after the initiation of a bankruptcy case, and according to the claims of citizens to whom the debtor is responsible for causing harm to life or health in accordance with the law^[3].

In addition, written objections of bankruptcy creditors who did not take part in the vote on the issue of concluding a settlement agreement or voting against its conclusion must be submitted to the economic court^[4], етsince the information contained in them may contribute to an objective assessment of the legality of this settlement agreement. It should be noted that such objections must be made in a timely manner. As practice shows, economic courts do not take into account the objections of creditors who were present at the general meeting, submitted directly to the court session, since the current legislation does not provide for such a possibility^[5].

An application for the approval of the settlement agreement is considered by the economic court in a session^[6]. The economic court shall notify interested persons about the time of consideration of the application. Interested parties are understood as the debtor, external or liquidator and the creditors indicated in the list attached to the application. However, their failure to appear at the hearing does not prevent the consideration of the application on the merits^[7].

A ruling is made on the approval or refusal to approve the settlement agreement. In its operative part, the full content of the settlement agreement is indicated, namely: who, to whom, in what time frame, in what amount, and in what order, reimburses the claims established and recognized by the economic court^[8].

If an amicable agreement is concluded and approved in the course of monitoring or external management procedures, then, just like in a claim proceeding, the proceedings are terminated. In this case, the court ruling necessarily indicates the approval of the settlement agreement as the basis for the termination of the proceedings on the case^[9].

If an amicable agreement is concluded during the liquidation proceedings, a ruling is issued on the approval of the amicable agreement, which indicates that the decision to declare the debtor bankrupt is not subject to execution^[10].

Currently, the question remains open: is it possible to appeal the ruling on the approval of the settlement agreement of the economic court? Article 151 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy» states that the economic court issues a ruling on refusal to approve a settlement agreement, which can be appealed (protested), but article 145 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy» does not indicate the possibility of appealing the ruling. However, according to Article 133 of the Economic Procedure Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, judicial acts on the approval of an amicable agreement can be appealed (protested). It follows from this that the ruling on the approval of the settlement agreement in the bankruptcy case can be appealed.

In addition, the bankruptcy legislation does not provide for the procedure and terms for appealing against the ruling. This issue is reflected in paragraph 21 of the ruling of the Plenum of the Supreme Economic Court of the Republic of Uzbekistan dated January 27, 2006 «On some issues of the application of bankruptcy legislation by economic courts», according to which the decisions made by the economic court in the framework of the bankruptcy case, which are not provided for by the Economic procedural the Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan can be appealed (protested) only in cases and in the manner prescribed by the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy». According to I.I.Tadzhiev, since the Economic Procedural Code does not provide for the determination of the refusal to approve the amicable agreement, the appeal against the ruling on the refusal to approve the amicable agreement made in accordance with Article 151 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy» the terms stipulated by Articles 59 and 60 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy», providing that the ruling must be appealed on appeal within 10 days from the date of its issuance, following the results of consideration of which the court of appeal within 10 days adopts a ruling, which is final^[11].

The right to appeal the ruling of the economic court on the refusal to approve the amicable agreement in the bankruptcy case belongs to the persons participating in the case, namely: 1) the debtor; 2) judicial administrator; 3) creditors; 4) tax and other authorized bodies for claims for compulsory payments; 5) the prosecutor in case of considering the bankruptcy case upon his application; 6) the state body for bankruptcy cases, in cases stipulated by the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy»; 7) other persons in cases stipulated by the Law, to which, in our opinion, the Central Bank of the Republic of Uzbekistan can be attributed in case of bankruptcy of credit organizations at its request; local government body and ministries, state committees, departments, economic management bodies of the Republic of Uzbekistan in cases of bankruptcy of city-forming and equivalent enterprises^[12].

A significant consequence of the conclusion and approval of an amicable agreement is the termination of the moratorium on the satisfaction of creditors’ claims, introduced in accordance with Art. 93 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy», that is, settlements are made with the debtor for current obligations.

With the approval of the settlement agreement, the powers of the judicial administrator are terminated, but he continues to perform the duties of the head of the legal entity until the time when the head of the debtor is appointed (elected)^[13].

Since the settlement agreement enters into force immediately after its approval, its implementation begins from that moment. In cases where the debtor does not fulfill his obligations under the amicable agreement, the creditors have the right to present their claims against the debtor in the amount provided for by the amicable agreement in the course of action proceedings^[14]. In this case, the case will be considered according to the general rules established by procedural legislation, and in the event of initiation of a bankruptcy case, the volume of claims of creditors in respect of whom an amicable agreement has been concluded should be determined by the conditions provided for by the amicable agreement^[15].

In full accordance with the essence of the court amicable agreement, the issue of the consequences of the cancellation in the appellate instance of the ruling that approved the amicable agreement is being resolved. It is stipulated that in case of cancellation of such a determination in the appellate instance, the case will be referred to the court of first instance. Only the economic court of first instance has the right to resolve it on the merits and make a decision^[16]. When the determination is canceled and the case is sent for consideration to the court of first instance, the obligatoryness of the decision to terminate the proceedings is not questioned, which is present in the event of the termination of the settlement agreement at the request of one of its parties. In addition, this rule serves to consistently consolidate the right to judicial protection, since if the ruling on the approval of the settlement agreement is canceled, then in the court of first instance these persons, whose rights and interests have been violated, are given the opportunity to fully realize the opportunities provided by law for protection^[17].

According to Article 132 of the Economic Procedure Code of the Republic of Uzbekistan, an amicable agreement must be legal and not violate the rights of other persons. When one of these requirements is violated, the economic court must refuse to approve the settlement agreement. If, under such circumstances, it is nevertheless approved, the court ruling must be canceled.

As for the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy», it provides for a wider range of grounds for the refusal by the economic court to approve the settlement agreement.

Firstly, the basis for refusal to approve the settlement agreement may be the fact of violation of Article 149 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy», which takes place if the debt on the claims of creditors provided for in the first part of Article 134 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy» «. These include claims for court costs, for costs associated with the payment of remuneration to the court administrator, current utility and maintenance payments, for insurance costs of the debtor’s property, as well as claims for the debtor’s obligations arising after the initiation of bankruptcy proceedings, and claims of citizens to which the debtor is responsible for causing harm to life or health in accordance with the legislation and the requirements for payment documents providing for the issuance of funds for the payment of wages.

It should be noted that this basis is unconditional. Even if the creditors voluntarily agree to conclude an amicable agreement before the debtor satisfies their claims, and this fact is established by the economic court, the amicable agreement still cannot be approved. Note that Article 149 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy», which provides for the obligatory presentation to the court of documents confirming the repayment of debts on the claims of extraordinary creditors, is formulated imperatively and does not allow any exceptions, including those established at the request of the participants in legal relations.

Secondly, the economic court may refuse to approve the settlement agreement if there are grounds provided for by Article 149 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy». They can be divided into three groups: a) non-compliance with the form of a settlement agreement, b) non-compliance of the terms of the settlement agreement with the requirements of the law, and c) violation of the rights of third parties. These violations may take place if the meeting of creditors, which made the decision to conclude an amicable agreement, was not carried out by a judicial manager; the voting was attended by tax and other authorized bodies; creditors who were in the register of creditors on the day of the meeting, etc., were not admitted to the meeting.

If such grounds as violation of the procedure for concluding an amicable agreement, non-compliance with its form, violation of the rights of third parties may not always lead to a refusal to approve an amicable agreement, then the contradiction of the terms of an amicable agreement to laws and other regulatory legal acts always entails a refusal to approve it.

Since bankruptcy creditors, concluding an amicable agreement, in fact refuse a certain amount of property claims, according to some authors, the economic court, which approves the amicable agreement, is obliged to find out the voluntariness of such a refusal. In this regard, proposals on the need to include the stage of consideration and conclusion of an amicable agreement in the process of judicial proceedings deserve attention. Since only in this case will the court be able to directly verify the actual will of the parties, explain to them the practical implementation of their intentions^[18]. Unfortunately, this proposal is difficult to implement. Establishment of a mandatory procedure under which, prior to the conclusion of an amicable agreement, its draft must be approved by the court, in connection with which it is necessary to hold a court session with the obligatory participation of the debtor and all bankruptcy creditors in it, will complicate and increase the terms of approval of the amicable agreement by the economic court.

If the economic court refused to approve the amicable agreement on the grounds provided for in Article 149 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy», it is considered not concluded and all agreements do not work, as well as the decision of the meeting of creditors to conclude it. At the same time, Article 152 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy» provides for the opportunity to re-address this issue. In this case, the meeting of creditors must again decide to conclude an amicable agreement, elect a representative — the same or another, who will conclude an amicable agreement on behalf of the creditors. When concluding a new amicable agreement, those shortcomings that were the basis for refusing to approve it by the economic court must be eliminated.

If the economic court refuses to approve the settlement agreement, the consideration of the case continues from the moment at which it was stopped by the time of the signing of the settlement agreement, which means that the corresponding bankruptcy procedure continues.

Based on the foregoing, it is proposed to amend Article 150 of the Law of the Republic of Uzbekistan «On Bankruptcy», part two in the following edition:

«If the settlement agreement is approved by the economic court during the judicial reorganization, the execution of the debt repayment schedule is terminated.

В случае утверждения мирового соглашения в ходе внешнего управления прекращается действие моратория на удовлетворение требований кредиторов.

If the settlement agreement is approved in the course of external management, the moratorium on the satisfaction of creditors’ claims is terminated.

If the settlement agreement is approved by the economic court in the course of liquidation proceedings, from the date of approval of the settlement agreement, the decision of the economic court on declaring the debtor bankrupt and on the commencement of winding up proceedings is not subject to further execution».

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[2] Ibratova F. Problems of a settlement in bankruptcy cases in economic courts //Norwegian Journal of Development of the International Science. – 2019. – №. 28-3.

[3] Барышева Г. А. и др. Теория и практика социального предпринимательства: Под научной редакцией докт. экон. наук ГА Барышевой. – STT Publishing.

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[5] https://sud.uz/ru/

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[7] Kingston K. G. et al. A Legal Inquiry into the Sustainability of the West African Gas Pipelines Project //Journal of Advanced Research in Law and Economics (JARLE). – 2019. – Т. 10. – №. 39. – С. 238-246.

[8] Барышова М. В. и др. Социальное предпринимательство: научные исследования и практика. – 2019.

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[10] Ибратова Ф. Б. ПРАВОВЫЕ ПРОБЛЕМЫ МИРОВОГО СОГЛАШЕНИЯ ПРИ РАССМОТРЕНИИ ДЕЛ О БАНКРОТСТВЕ В ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИХ СУДАХ РЕСПУБЛИКИ УЗБЕКИСТАН //ПЕРСПЕКТИВЫ РАЗВИТИЯ НАУКИ В СОВРЕМЕННОМ МИРЕ. – 2019. – С. 163-170.

[11] Таджиев И.И. Комментарий к Закону Республики Узбекистан «О банкротстве» / Авт.Коллектив: М.К.Азимов и др. – Ташкент: 2007. – 457.

[12] Ибратова Ф. Б. БАНКРОТСТВО ЛИКВИДИРУЕМОГО СУБЪЕКТА ПРЕДПРИНИМАТЕЛЬСТВА: ПРОБЛЕМЫ И РЕШЕНИЯ //Norwegian Journal of Development of the International Science. – 2021. – №. 58-2.

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